Page 201 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 1-4

She clawed at him, trying to pull aside his T-shirt as she squirmed and wriggled like an eel beneath him. He pushed his thigh between hers and leaned forward, pressing it against the sensitive place between her legs, making her gasp and writhe even more.

Then with quick, hard motions, he jerked her T-shirt up and over her head, then swiftly wrapped it around her wrists and pulled it tight, before pushing them up and over her head and down onto the cushions. Then he held them there.

She stared up at him, a golden-eyed fury, wildflowers still scattered through the heavy honey-gold skeins of her hair. The pulse at the base of her throat beat hard and fast and the heat between her thighs was insane, soaking through the denim of his jeans.

‘You want this?’ he demanded, his voice harsh gravel and rough sand.

She said nothing, but her eyes were full of anger and heat, her hips moving sensually against the hard press of his thigh.

Dominic was a businessman through and through. His father had raised him to be ruthless, and ruthless he was. He had the soul of a predator and, right now, that predator was hungry.

‘You have to tell me, nymph,’ he said. ‘And then you’ll have to make it worth my while.’

CHAPTER FIVE

MAUDELAYONthe couch beneath Dominic Lancaster’s hard, hot body, a dim part of her screaming a warning. She couldn’t quite work out how she’d got here, only that one moment they’d been shouting at each other, and she’d decided to leave, then the next she’d turned and thrown herself into his arms instead.

His mouth had been on hers and she’d still been furious.

Furious that he’d made her feel bad for how she’d acted. Furious that he’d made her feel afraid. Furious that, apparently, he wasn’t going to laugh off her being pregnant with his child and let her resume life as if nothing had happened. Furious that he’d made her feel stupid for not considering her future, when a very deep part of her was still in shock that she was pregnant at all.

Furious that she wanted him so badly it was almost painful.

It was easier to kiss him than to talk to him. Easier to bite him and scratch him than it was to swallow her fury. Easier to channel that fury into desire than to keep hold of her temper and try not to lose it, not to be at the mercy of her wilder emotions the way her grandparents had always warned her about.

The way he touched her, with firm mastery, felt so good. Made her feel as if she could rage out of control, give into her darker impulses, and it would be fine, because he was there. He was strong and powerful and he could take anything she threw at him.

The way he’d bound her wrists made her feel contained and safe, which was weird since being tied up usually indicated the opposite.

He wouldn’t hurt her, though, she knew that deep in her soul. He was the god of the forest and she was under his protection.

His dark brown eyes, so much darker than her own, bordering on black, stared down fiercely at her. Flames in them.

‘Well?’ he demanded, his rich, deep voice as dark as his eyes. ‘What’s it going to be?’

She took a gasping breath. ‘Make it worth your while? What do you mean?’

‘If it’s sex you want, I’ll give it to you. But then you will give me a calm, rational discussion about this baby.’

She did want sex. She wanted him to give it to her. But to talk about the baby...theirbaby...

‘You can just walk away, you know,’ she said thickly.

‘I know. But sadly for you I’m not a man who walks away from his responsibilities.’

‘You can walk away from this. I won’t hold it against you.’

‘No, but you’d rather other parts were against me, wouldn’t you?’ He shifted his thigh between her legs, pressing delicately. ‘Like this, hmm?’

Maude shuddered, the pressure causing the most exquisite pleasure. ‘You don’t want...children...’

‘How do you know? I could want a whole horde of them.’

‘But you...you don’t.’ A sound broke from her, torn from deep in her throat as he shifted again, the friction making her want to lift her hips against him.

He bent his head, his mouth close to her ear. ‘Keep telling me what I don’t want, nymph,’ he purred. ‘I’m sure you know better.’

This was insanity and she knew it. From the minute he’d shown up at the edge of the pool, watching her, she’d known it. Then being in this room, feeling as if the walls were closing in on her, because he was in it too, taking up all the space, all the air. Standing there like a king, with his arms folded, his black eyes accusing. As if she were one of his subjects and had to do what he said.

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